Role Call | Shubhankar Ray, Global Brand Director

LONDON, United Kingdom — Shubhankar Ray is the global brand director of Amsterdam-based denim label G-Star. Born in Calcutta, India, in 1968, Ray moved to Manchester in England, studying chemistry before moving into fashion branding. He first made his name at Caterpillar in the 1990s and then at Camper in the 2000s, where he developed innovative branding strategies and advertising campaigns. His communications work often blends TV, film, printed media, musical collaboration, gallery installations and retail.

BoF: Please describe your current role

I am currently global brand director, so I mainly work on brand image, message and positioning worldwide, alongside creating new concepts and ways for the brand to communicate. I am involved in creating global advertising campaigns with the likes of Anton Corbijn, Liv Tyler, Gemma Arterton, and Vincent Gallo; developing an integrated media strategy; organising fashion shows with Dennis Hopper, Benicio del Toro and The United Nations; pop up galleries, and design crossovers with Jean Prouve, Marc Newson, Vitra and Leica.

I am the brand guardian, making sure G-Star’s image and visual language is emotionally correct around the world, so although I live in London, I work in between London, Amsterdam, NYC, Capetown, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Istanbul and Shanghai!

BoF: What attracted you to the role?

G-Star was an innovative, modern denim brand that was a European challenger brand, and that wanted to become a highly energised global brand. That challenge was exciting, and I thought their maniacal dedication to product innovation and pushing the boundaries of denim with an industrial modern approach was spot on — and I liked them.

The denim market is interesting because jeans are an iconic street-wear product that cuts through all the barriers of taste, race, age culture and sexuality. I like the fact that denim and jeans have been at the core of youth rebellion from Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean in the 1950s-1960s to hippies to punks to ravers in the late 20th century. The DNA of denim is energised, so it is a very creative world within which to work on brand DNA and making things, as well as making things happen. Denim has a special cultural relevancy as an analogue product in an increasingly digital world.

BoF: What is the most exciting project or initiative you have worked on?

Currently it is 'RAW for the Oceans,' which is a multi-stakeholder collaboration involving Pharrell Williams, Bionic Yarn, Parley, NGOs and G-Star to innovate denim and create jeans from recycled ocean plastic and make an impact on ocean plastic pollution and drive a more sustainable approach, where sustainability is a condition for doing business, rather than a responsibility.

It’s exciting to work with a creative force like Pharrell as curator and co-designer of the collection, where he is not the poster boy for the campaign, but an accelerator for the idea to transform waste into unique products. It’s a creative exploration to innovate function, aesthetics and sustainability in denim as well as raise awareness for the ocean plastic problem and try to make an impact.

BoF: How is your role changing? What are the forces driving this change?

Brands are changing and the demands of the audience are evolving so they desire a super-specialist level of entertainment, service and product culture. My role is evolving; we need to stay tuned into the street and mine cultural relevancy in music, film, fashion, design and art for our brand where there is a natural connection with the audience and it fits with our brand DNA and influences. Everything today is global due to the proliferation of media and technology and where context is king, the most important media channel is you!

Everything is interconnected, so the role is also changing and we have to make things happen in emerging markets like Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey, where half the population is under the age of 30. These are new challenges and new vocabularies to understand within branding. The challenge is to be able to make the right brand signals in an over-saturated marketplace full of noise and cut through the clutter.

BoF: Tell us about a time you failed and how you learned from it.

I worked on developing the global brand image for Camper in the early 2000s and created award-winning global advertising campaigns; however, when we tried to extend the brand and Camper’s core DNA of comfort with design from shoes to food to hotels and re-tune the brand positioning to provide basic human needs like shoes, food and shelter with high design and ecology, we had mixed success. From the failure of a Camper restaurant, remixing tapas and sushi in an eco/fast-food concept, the learning was that Camper’s DNA has more natural energy in footwear and Casa Camper hotels, which operate as multi-sensory ads as well as being a viable and profitable boutique hotel chain.

BoF: What advice do you have for people who are interested in doing what you do?

Be real and think for yourself in the hallucination of reality which the fashion world can sometimes be. Always remain open; innovation is a process involving lots of people over time. Understand that inspiration can influence the creation of ideas, but that innovation is a system — be happy being part of that system and try to make sure you work with and collaborate with the right people and make sure the right people collaborate with you. Try to spend more time on ideation and making things happen and less time on bullshit!

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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